At the request of a friend, I will be spending the next few months writing about my upcoming career change which has been a long and interesting process - in the hopes that it will inspire and/or help others who are similarly motivated to change careers.
Background: I've spent a good portion of the past 26 years working in various corporations and law firms in a number of different administrative and marketing positions. The succession of jobs were my means to an ends - monotonous office jobs which would support my life and allow me to continue my dream of being a stage performer. Finally after years of performance disappointments (never getting that Broadway musical or Spielberg movie role), I decided it was time to give up on my dream. At this same time, I realized that I was working in positions that were completely unsatisfying and that I was helping soulless corporations make the rich richer and the poor poorer with all the work being performed by those of us in the middle. It was not how I wanted to spend my remaining productive years - doing mindless, soulless, meaningless tasks.* It was time for a career change. I wanted to find a career which would be purposeful for me and would make a difference by improving the world for the better.
My decision? Return to my original plan of becoming a teacher. (Before deciding to pursue a performing career 26 years ago, I had planned on being a high school teacher, but this plan got derailed by my performance dreams.) Teaching will give me the opportunity that I am looking for - that of changing the world for the better by instilling knowledge to our youth. Growing up, I had many teachers who made a positive impact on my life and I would like to have the opportunity to pay it forward. But the difficulty in this decision was how to go about making this change. I have minimal teaching experience so my options were limited as to how to get into the classroom. One option was to take a teaching preparation course at a local university. Another was to apply to a teaching corps. I decided to attempt the latter because if accepted into a corps, I would be teaching in a matter of months rather than going through a 2 year teaching preparation course. For me, the chance to work with "at need" students is the most important factor and why I was most interested in applying for a teaching corp position.
What is a teaching corps? Teaching corps are programs which are created to improve elementary and secondary teaching in predominantly low-income areas. These programs are geared mostly for recent college graduates but they do encourage career changers to apply. Most have a two year commitment and provide the corps members with training and guidance on being effective teachers in some of the most challenging school districts - generally inner city districts.
But which teaching corps to choose? I did some research on the options available and found that there are now a bevy of various teaching corps looking for qualified applicants: Teach for America, NYC Teaching Fellows, Inner-City Teaching Corps (Chicago), Mississippi Teaching Corps, Oakland Teaching Corps and many more. I chose to apply to the Teach for America 2012 corps - for a few reasons. One, they are one of the oldest and most respected teaching corps in the nation. Two, they are a national corps which means they cover more than just one urban area - greatly increasing my chances of acceptance (plus they cover the Greater Boston area). Lastly, they were named one of Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For - not an important feature but a 'nice to have.'
Next blog: The Application and Interview Process
* Please do not mistake my dislike of my corporate jobs as a reflection on others who work in these industries. I have some of the utmost respect for people who do these corporate jobs and do them well. If you enjoy your corporate career, Mazel Tov!! They're just not the right fit for me.
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